wellhead

• well-head

From well +‎ head.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈwɛlhɛd/

wellhead (plural wellheads)

1. The place where a spring breaks out of the ground; the source of water for a stream or well.
   • 1607, George Chapman, Bussy D'Ambois, London: William Aspley, Act I, Scene 1, p. 3,

     Leaue the troubled streames,

     And liue as Thriuers doe at the Well head.

   • 1789, William Gilpin, Observations on the River Wye, London: R. Blamire, Section 6, p. 74,

     It is a singular circumstance, that within a quarter of a mile of the well-head of the Wye, arises the Severn.

   • 1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Flight in the Heather: The Quarrel”, in Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London; Paris: Cassell & Company, Limited., published 1886, OCLC 1056292939, pages 239–240:

     We set forth accordingly by this itinerary; and for the best part of three nights travelled on eerie mountains and among the well-heads of wild rivers; [...]

2. (figuratively) The source of something; a fountainhead.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, OCLC 932900760, stanza 26, page 303:

     [H]e likened was to a welhed / Of euill words, and wicked ſclaunders by him ſhed.

   • 1932, D. H. Lawrence, “Painted Tombs of Tarquinia” in Etruscan Places, New York: Viking, 1957, p. 113,

     [...] a bull was not merely a stud animal worth so much, due to go to the butcher in a little while. It was a vast wonder-beast, a well-head of the great, furnace-like passion that makes the worlds roll and the sun surge up [...]

3. The surface structure of an oil well etc.